


The Gus Chronicles(High-School Years)

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Canon, No Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-08
Updated: 2004-03-29
Packaged: 2018-12-27 12:24:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12081027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: After spending time at a Party welcoming Molly's first child into the family, Brian, Justin, and Gus have a series of nightmares.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

March 2016 

 

Gus Peterson-Marcus was sleeping like a log. Gus was sleeping as innocently as an angel, at least as innocently as a 15 

year-old boy can ever sleep. Gus and his Dads, Brian and Justin, had spent the evening at his Grandma Jenn’s condo having a 

picnic to welcome the newest member of the family to the family. Gus’ Aunt Molly, Justin’s sister, had gotten out of the 

hospital with her first-born child, Thomas Justin Weatherly, that morning. Everyone had eaten way too much and the adults, 

except for Molly, had drunk more than they should have but everyone had a wonderful time welcoming Tommy to the family. Gus 

had been amazed with his little cousin and had told the boy all of the things that they would do once Tommy got big enough to 

do things, starting with going to the Pittsburgh petting zoo. Of course Gus didn’t think about the fact that once Tommy was 

actually old enough to enjoy the activities in question Gus would be in his twenties and probably wouldn’t really want to 

spend time with a young boy. Gus had driven the Jeep home since both of his Dads felt that they'd drunk too much to safely 

drive. Gus had always found it hard to believe the stories he heard about his Dad’s younger days since as far back as he 

could remember his Dad and Uncle Justin had behaved like perfect role models.

Gus was sound asleep when he was awakened by a horrible scream coming from the master bedroom. Over the years Gus had heard 

a lot of sounds coming from that room but nothing like this scream of abject terror. Being a brave young man he rushed to 

the room, not stopping to put on anything more than the boxers he slept in, to see what had happened and if there was 

anything he could do to help. When he opened the door he found his Uncle Justin holding his Dad, trying to comfort him. He 

also had the answer to a question that he had often wondered about but never had the courage to ask; his Dads slept naked.

 

“What happened?”

“Your Dad must have eaten something that disagreed with him, he just had a bad nightmare Gus. Go back to bed. We’ll see you 

in the morning.”

“If you're sure that there is nothing I can do Uncle Justin.”

“Go to bed Gus you need your beauty sleep.”

“Uncle Justin!”

 

The Kinney-Taylor household had been bathed in silence for an hour when another scream of terror burst the bubble. This time 

Brian and Justin rushed to the room of their son.

“Gussy what's the problem?”

“Sonnyboy are you all right?”

“Dad, Uncle Justin I just had a bad dream. We'll have to find out what Grandma put into that cheese dip.”

“If you're sure you're all right then we'll go back to bed.”

“Good night again, guys.”

 

After another hour of silence the inevitable third shout occurred.

“Justin what happened?”

“Uncle Justin, you too?”

“Yes I had a nightmare too. We really will have to find out what Mom put in that cheese dip. Go back to bed and we'll talk 

about our dreams in the morning, that's if we actually remember them.”

“Don’t worry, I doubt that I’ll ever forget mine Justin.”

“Me too Uncle Justin, it was horrible.”

“Well mine was no walk in the park.”

 

BRIAN’S NIGHTMARE

 

“OK Brian, tell me what was so bad that it woke the big bad Brian Kinney from a deep sleep after a passionate bout of 

lovemaking with the twink that wouldn’t go away.”

“Uncle Justin!”

“Funny Justin. It was horrible; I’ve never had such a frightening dream. Considering the life I led before I met you that's 

an amazing fact by itself.”

“Well tell me what you can remember before it goes away.”

“Basically it was what my life would have been like if I hadn’t met you under that lamp post all those years ago. I could 

see what was happening in the dream but I knew what had happened in real life so that was why it was so frightening. I knew 

why things were going so bad yet there was nothing I could do about it. I never want to think about what my life would be 

like if I hadn’t met you Justin.”

“Tell the story Brian, just get it out of your system.”

“Go on Dad tell us what you dreamt.”

“It started the same as what really happened. I was getting a blowjob in the backroom of Babylon when Mikey came and told me 

that he and the guys wanted to go eat before going home. This time though while I was walking from the backroom to the front 

door I turned on my cell phone. Just as I got to the door the phone rang. It was Melanie telling me that the baby had been 

born and I should get my ass to the hospital. Well that ticked me off so instead of going out the door and seeing a blond 

angel standing under a lamp post I just hung up on her, turned the phone back off and returned to the back room. When I 

finally stumbled out of Babylon and to my Jeep; Mikey and the boys were gone and no one was standing under the lamp post.

The next morning I finally woke up and checked my messages. The last one was from Lindsay telling me that if I wanted to see 

my son, Abraham, that she and Mel would be home around 4. I just called her number and left her a message telling her that 

I'd done my part and for her to not bother me about the brat. Send me the papers for me to sign to give up the parental 

rights that I didn’t want. So my son was never in my life. I saw him with Lindsay on occasion when we would run into each 

other but I never thought of him as my son and I doubt that he knew I was his biological father. Though I imagine that as he 

was growing up someone had to tell him how much he looked like the legendary Brian Kinney, king of Liberty Avenue. 

Since I never met Justin I had more time to mess with Mikey and the Doc's relationship. Evidently I went too far and drove 

Mikey into the Doc’s arms, and house, and out of my life forever. Sixteen years of friendship thrown away because I couldn’t 

grow up and didn’t want Mikey to grow up either. Emmett and Ted went with Michael in dropping me as a friend and suddenly I 

had no one in my life. Lindsay gave up on me when I wouldn’t have anything to do with my son and Melanie was never a fan of 

mine to begin with. I even enraged Cynthia so much that she quit on me. Well I could still count on Deb and Vic but I 

didn’t want to acknowledge being friends with people so old so I stayed away from them most of the time.

I continued on my merry way, tricking, drinking, and drugging every night. For some reason this affected my job performance 

so when the whole Kip mess happened Ryder wasn’t willing to stand beside me when it went to court. Since I had blown 

Lindsay, Mel and the baby out of my life Melanie laughed in my face when I asked her to represent me. The counselor Ryder 

got me managed to get the firm off the hook but left me to hang in the wind. I lost pretty much everything, the Loft, the 

Jeep and most of my savings but worst of all Ryder fired me and I was unable to get a job with any other advertising firm in 

the area or in the country for that matter. I wound up doing some job that required me to wear a shirt with Brian 

embroidered over the pocket. Can you imagine the horror of that?

I was living in some efficiency. I didn’t have the money to buy new designer clothes. I didn’t have the money to squander 

on drugs and alcohol so my tricking was severely hampered. As I got older I found it harder and harder to get any guy I was 

interested in to be interested in me. Finally one night when three guys in a row turned me down I just said the hell with it 

and decided to end it all. I wasn’t going to be another Theodore. I walked out of Babylon and started walking toward Liberty 

Avenue fully intending to walk in front of the first moving vehicle. That's when I screamed and woke up.

God Justin I’m so glad I saw you standing under that lamp post and that you put up with all of my crap and chased after me 

when anyone sensible would have given up. The only good thing in this dream life was I didn’t have to deal with Justin 

leaving me for Ethan. But I lived all of those years without any ’Sunshine’ in my life. I’m so glad that I went to the 

hospital that night and saw my son and fell in love with him at that very instant. I’m so glad Sonnyboy that you've been in 

my life since the day you were born and that you'll always be in my life. To think that it could have gone in some other 

direction is horrifying. I love you Justin Craig Taylor. Augustus Brian Peterson-Marcus you're the most wonderful son any 

man could ever want.”

“Geez Dad I love you too. You and Uncle Justin have been terrific fathers as well.”

“Where're my hip waders when I need them.”

“Uncle Justin!”

“Justin I still love you even when you try to be obnoxious. But I have to tell you that it doesn’t become you. Though you 

in nothing but hip waders is kind of interesting."

"DAD!"

"Well Gussy it's time you tell us about your nightmare.”

 

GUS’ NIGHTMARE

“There really must have been something in the cheese dip because my nightmare was pretty much the same as yours Dad. None of 

the family was in my life in the dream world. There was just Mom, Daddy Gui, and me. Why would Mom have married a gay 

Frenchman? 

Anyway we lived in a dumpy little apartment instead of the house since Mom hadn’t been able to pay the mortgage without Mama 

there to help out. Daddy Gui stayed home and watched after me until I started school and after that he only worked part 

time. So money was always a problem. 

My grandparents totally disowned us when Mom married Daddy Gui. You had nothing to do with us Dad, though I eventually found 

out who you were and that you were my father. Looking just like someone does tend to draw comments. I asked Mom why you 

weren’t part of my life and she told me that you were a selfish bastard that ran away from commitment at the first chance all 

of your life and that we were better off without you. 

Things weren’t too bad until I hit puberty then Daddy Gui started getting really interested in me. At first I didn’t know 

what was going on but then when he actually started trying to touch me I knew what was up. Mom for some reason was unwilling 

to believe me when I told her what he was trying to do. She actually told me to quit trying to make trouble between her and 

Daddy Gui. I was horrified that she would think that I would make something like that up just to cause trouble. So I fended 

him off but finally one afternoon before Mom got home from work he managed to trap me in the bathroom, I forgot to lock the 

door. He started telling me how beautiful I was, just like my father, how kissable my lips were, just like my father, and 

that he could make me feel better than I had ever felt in my life. I was scared to death that I wouldn’t get out of the room 

without being hurt because I knew I wasn’t going to let him do anything to me. He backed me into the corner of the room 

where he started groping and trying to kiss me. Finally I managed to grab a piece of sculpture Mom had on a shelf and hit 

him in the head with it. Then I ran out of the apartment as fast as I could, leaving Daddy Gui bleeding on the floor. 

I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t stay there since I wasn’t going to let that bastard have his way with me and Mom 

wouldn’t believe me before so she wouldn’t believe me now. After walking to the park and then walking around it several 

times I remembered the comments about the famous King of Liberty Avenue being my biological father. I decided that I'd try 

to find him and see if he could help me. So I walked to Liberty Avenue, which took a long time. I had to walk since I 

didn’t have any money for the bus. When I finally got to Liberty I was starving and didn’t have a clue as how to find anyone 

let alone Brian Kinney who I'd never actually seen. As I wandered up Liberty I saw a guy come out of a club and start 

walking towards the street. About the time I realized who he had to be, after all I looked in the mirror everyday, I also 

realized that the guy intended to walk into traffic. That was when I screamed and woke up.”

“God Justin, I want to go hunt that bastard Guillaume up and beat the shit out of him.”

“That would be hard to explain to the police don’t you think Brian?”

“Justin do you always have to be sensible?”

“Doesn’t someone?”

“Brat!”

“Gussy that was horrible but you know that nothing like that would've happened. Your mother would never've allowed someone 

to molest you.”

“I don’t know Uncle Justin it certainly seemed real.”

“We really do need to find out what Mom put in that cheese dip. My dream was basically the same as well. What my life would 

've been like if Brian and I hadn‘t met that night under the lamp post.”

 

JUSTIN’S NIGHTMARE

 

“For several years I had been wondering about myself. I thought about boys instead of girls. My best friend was a girl 

instead of another boy. Finally, a few days after starting my senior year of High School, I took the bull by the horns and 

went to Liberty Avenue to find out if I really was Gay. 

I figured I’d find some guy and see what happened. I was never so nervous in my entire life as I walked down the street with 

all of those gay people hugging and kissing right on the street. I asked some old guy about the bars, when he asked me to 

gowith him I almost ran away. 

I eventually found myself standing under a lamp post but after a few minutes I decided to give up and go home. Walking back 

to the bus stop I got to talking with a guy only a few years older than me. He pulled me into an alley where he proceeded to 

give me a blowjob. It was less than thrilling, I don’t know if it was his ability or the fact that I was afraid the police 

would catch us. As soon as I came I ran away from him and got on the next bus. That little adventure convinced me that I 

wasn’t gay just confused about what I wanted. 

So I finished out my senior year at St James. Chris Hobbs and I became friends and I took Daphne to the Prom as a double 

date with Chris and his girl friend. I went to Dartmouth and got a business degree, I had given up my art when I decided I 

wasn’t gay since I didn’t want anyone stereotyping me. Once I graduated I got a job with my Dad’s company. He was pushing 

for grandchildren so I got married to the first woman I slept with. While I managed to have sex with her several times a 

week for the first couple of years, we were trying to get pregnant; it was never anything I really enjoyed past the actual 

release of orgasm. I moved up in the hierarchy of the company and was making good money but I was never really happy.   
Finally one night my wife came to me and said. “Justy I’m filing for divorce in the morning. I want more from life than 

what you're giving me. We never had a child and sex once a month simply isn’t good enough. Admit the truth to yourself, go 

to Liberty Avenue and find some guy. Fuck yourself silly and enjoy life for a change." Of course I denied the implication 

but inside I was thrilled. As much as I had denied what I was someone else finally told me what I had always known. So for 

the hell of it I left our fancy house in the rich subdivision and drove to Liberty Avenue. 

As I wandered down the street I didn’t know any more than I had all those years before but this time I intended to make 

something good happen instead of running away. I found myself standing under a lamp post again when I saw the most beautiful 

person I had ever seen walk out of a club. As he walked towards Liberty I tried to gather the courage to intercept him but 

it became clear that the guy was going walk into traffic, but then he looked my way. He stopped dead in his tracks and then 

walked over to me where he said.”

“How's it going? You had a busy night?”

Then I replied “Just checking out the bars. Boytoy, Meathook” I had noticed the names as I walked down the street from my 

car.

“Meathook? So you're into leather?”

“Sure”

“So, where're you headed?”

“No place special.”

“I can change that”

 

“Then we kissed with more passion than I had ever experienced in my life. When I came back to my senses I saw a teenage 

blond version of the guy watching us. I asked the guy about the younger version and he just said “Huh.” I told him to turn 

around, he did, and when he saw the boy he just started laughing. 

I asked what was so funny and he said, “What a night to remember, I meet my Sunshine and my Sonnyboy almost at the same 

instant.” 

Then you called to the boy, “Abraham come here, you're my son; how could I've ever been so stupid as to not have you in my 

life.” 

Then the three of us walked to my car and we wound up at the Liberty Diner where we started sorting out our lives. That's 

when I awoke.”

“Justin I've been wondering why Gus and I awoke with screams of terror while you awoke with a shout of joy”

“Don’t you see Brian we were destined to be together no matter what happened. If we hadn’t met when we did we would've met 

later. Granted meeting earlier was better than later but we were destined to be together and that was a joyous thing to dream.”


	2. The Gus Chronicles(High-School Years)

Monday December 19 2016

“Dad, Uncle Justin I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun. Who knew sliding down a mountainside would be so much fun? Thanks for taking me with you this year. Have you always gone to Vermont for your December vacation weekend?”

“Justin did you have any idea that Sonnyboy had a good time on our little getaway?”

“No Brian I didn’t, of course I lost count of how many times he has told us how much fun he was having after about 107th time he said so.”

“I had too much fun to let you two pull my chain about it. You didn’t answer my question though, have you two always gone to Vermont or have you gone elsewhere? I do remember you going away for a weekend every year but I don’t remember if you ever said where you went.”

“Yes Sonnyboy we have gone to Vermont every year since we started the tradition of December getaways.”

“The first time we went was your Dad’s attempt to make up for a missed trip to Vermont we were supposed to take in ‘02. This makeup trip was in December of ‘04, which was about a year and half after you got us back together. We had so much fun that year that we decided on the trip home that we would make it a yearly event. I’m glad that you had a great time Gus.”

“It’s always amazing how much fun it is to roll around in the snow. It certainly isn’t fun scooping the stuff but playing in the snow is another story. I noticed that the two of you spent more time in the lodge than you did on the slopes. Was the cocoa that good? Of course that allowed me more time to spend with Cassie, Sue, and Ron. It was amazing how those Nebraska girls could throw a snowball.”

“Well Gus your Dad is getting up there in years and he has to recuperate after a few runs down the mountain. He gets tired so easily now that he is over 45. We were happy that you met some kids your own age to hang with while I was busy helping Brian recuperate. Helping him recuperate is hard work let me tell you. The cocoa was amazingly good though. Of course we knew before we left Pittsburgh that you would make new friends. I‘ve never known anyone who can make friends as easily as you do.”

“Recuperate; if you say so Uncle Justin. Making friends is easy for me; always has and I suppose always will be. I learned how to make friends from you. I’m going to call Lance and tell him about the trip. I wish his mother had let him come with us. I’m not really sure he asked her since I‘m sure he figured that she would never let him go anywhere with me let alone with you two. After 10 years she still isn’t happy that Lance and I are best friends. I’m still the son of an effing queer and his effing boy toy as far as she is concerned. She actually says effing; I’ve heard her use the term. I‘ll go to bed after talking to Lance so I‘ll see you both in the morning.”

***

“Justin Craig Taylor, what do you mean telling the boy I had to recuperate after a few runs down the mountain. Brian Kinney doesn‘t do recuperate, he just keeps going and going.”

“Well Brian Shawn Kinney did you want me to tell him that we were fucking like bunnies while he was snowboarding with his new friends?”

“No, but then I don’t think that your recuperating story fooled him one bit either.”

“I know; but I can still pretend that he doesn’t know what we do behind closed doors just like you pretend he doesn‘t know what we do.”

“You know Sunshine I was very glad that when Mel and Lindsay made me tell him the facts of life I got to tell him the straight version; since if he had required the gay version he would have known exactly what the two of us do behind closed doors.”

“Would that have been so bad? Besides I think he knows more than he lets on.”

“You can’t tell anyone this but I was so nervous telling him about the birds and bees that if I had had to give away our sexual activities I probably would have passed out from not being able to breathe. It surprised the hell out of me that it embarrassed me so much; Brian Kinney doesn’t do embarrassment. So telling him about tops and bottoms and everything that implies would have been more than I could have handled. I didn’t have any problems teaching you the gay birds and bees but then with you it was much more show than tell. Of course I would deny saying this if you actually did tell anyone that I got nervous talking to my Sonnyboy about sex.”

“It still amazes me how prudish you are around Gus. I did know more about gay sex than you think I did, I was just in so much awe of you that I couldn‘t remember anything I had read in my porn stash. I was so nervous that it's a wonder I just didn‘t faint when you kissed me that very first time.”

“If it amazes you think how much it amazes me. Brian Kinney doesn‘t do prudish except I can‘t deny how prudish I am around Gus. You had a porn stash?”

“Sure I had a porn stash, what 17-year-old boy doesn’t have a porn stash. It wasn’t very big and wasn’t as explicit as I would have liked it to have been but it had pictures of guys fooling around.”

 

***

“Hello Mrs. Smith may I talk to Lance?”

“Lance doesn’t live here anymore.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t live there?”

“I found the filthy magazine that you gave him. I can’t have a faggot living in my home so I threw him out.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t give Lance any magazine let alone a filthy one?”

“The piece of filth had Brian Kinney in the address so where else did he get it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The magazine filled with men wearing next to nothing. I asked Lance what he was doing with that piece of filth hidden in his underwear drawer. He just looked at me and couldn‘t give me an excuse so I had no choice but to throw him out of my house. As far as I‘m concerned I no longer have a son and I don‘t want to talk to you.”

“That was an underwear catalog.”

“Gus never call me again.”

“Mrs. Smith where did Lance go?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care.”

 

***

“Sonnyboy what is the problem, I thought you were going to bed?”

“I just called Lance, his mother threw him out of the house because she found an underwear catalog in his chest of drawers. She decided he was a faggot because of that catalog and so he wasn’t fit to live in her house any more. I gave Lance that catalog so it was my fault. Lance isn’t any more gay than I am. We just had fun laughing at all of those ridiculous types of underwear. How could any mother throw their child out of the house over an underwear catalog?”

“Gus calm down. When did she throw him out of the house?”

“I don’t know Uncle Justin she didn’t say. She told me not to call her again. That she doesn’t know where Lance is and that she doesn’t care. We have to find him. It’s cold out. Lance won’t know what to do on the streets. He is way too shy to go to a shelter even if he thought of a shelter in the first place.”

“Gus there is nothing we can do tonight, I’ll call the police and have them start looking. In the morning I’ll visit Mrs. Smith and try to find out what I can. I’ve never understood how a parent can throw a child away but too many of them do. Don’t worry Gus we'll find Lance.”

“I hope so Dad, I couldn’t live with myself if anything happens to him since I gave him the catalog.”

“Gus you didn’t do anything wrong. It isn’t your fault; it's his mother’s fault for being a bigoted bitch. I know it will be hard but you need to go to sleep. We'll find Lance in the morning and figure out what we need to do after we find him.”

*** 

“Justin I’ve called the police. They said that there isn’t much that they can do tonight. They will check with the hospitals, the shelters, and the morgues. They will let the cops patrolling know to look for him but they doubt anything can be done in the dark. In the morning they will be able to check the places a boy in his position would be likely to go to. What the fuck could that bitch of a mother be thinking? Throwing a 16 year-old out in the winter because of a fucking underwear catalog. I'll go talk to her in the morning to see what I can find out. This has to turn out well or Gus will never forgive himself.”

“Brian we’ll do everything we possibly can do. Let’s go to bed, we won’t be able to accomplish anything if we are exhausted.”

“Justin don’t think about this too much tonight, we don’t want the nightmares to start again.”

“Don’t worry Brian I got over what my Dad did to me years ago.”

*** 

“Mrs. Smith you don’t know me but I’m here to find out anything I can to help me find your son. HOw could you throw your son onto the streets because of an underwear catalog?”

“I know who you are; you effing queer. Are you happy that you recruited another innocent boy to your disgusting lifestyle? Who was the first one to defile him, you or your boy toy? How long ago did you corrupt him?”

“Yes I’m queer but you have to be kidding me if you really believe that I recruited him. I won’t dignify your last questions with answers. Lance is no gayer than you are. An underwear catalog is your proof that you son is a faggot; how fucked is that? Gus tells me that he and Lance just looked at the pictures and laughed at the stupid types of underwear. You did at least make sure he had some money to survive on didn‘t you?”

“Looking at pictures of half naked men is queer, the boy proved to be a faggot and I threw him out. I knew that I shouldn’t have let the school talk me into not transferring the boy to another school when he first became friends with Gus. With Gus as his friend it was just a matter of time before you corrupted him. I don’t know if he had any money or not and it doesn’t concern me anymore. The Salvation Army has been here already and taken all of his stuff out of my house. As far as I’m concerned he no longer exists and I have no concerns over his whereabouts. I suppose I should have known that it was destined to happen considering his father’s family. I should have given him up as a baby but I was weak.”

“What are you talking about now you sanctimonious witch?”

“I had been married about 6 months when my husband’s younger brother came home from college and told the family that he was gay. Since they didn’t throw him out of the family and even embraced his lifestyle I had no choice but to leave my husband so that I wouldn’t be corrupted by their unholy behavior. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after I had left Omaha and moved to Pittsburgh. My ex-husband doesn’t know that Lance exists since I didn’t feel the need to expose the child to that family. All of my work and the work of my church and the boy still turns out queer. I suppose it was destined to happen no matter what I did. Well it's out of my hands now.”

“You have no idea how much of a bitch you are do you?”

“Kindly leave my home and never come here again. If you find the boy you are welcome to him.”

“Do you have any idea of how many words other than Hello Mr. Kinney and Good bye Mr. Kinney Lance has said to me in the 10 years he and Gus have been friends?”

“No and I can’t say that I care.”

“As far as I can remember absolutely none. I always figured it was because of his shyness but now I’m sure that he was probably deathly afraid that if he spoke to me or Justin he would instantly turn into a queer.”

“Like I said he is no longer a concern of mine.”

“In case you don’t know Mrs. Smith I’m in advertising; so don’t be surprised to see reports of your behavior in the local news media. I can just see the news story. Local woman throws son out into the snow because she found an underwear catalog in his chest of drawers. Don’t worry about Lance, Justin and I'll make sure he finally has a home he can be comfortable in.”

“You don’t scare me since I know that I did the moral thing.”

“I thought my mother was a religious fanatic, you make her look like an atheist.”

***

“Brian did you find anything out that will help us find Lance?”

“I just found out what a hellhole that boy had to grow up in. She actually doesn’t have a clue that she did anything wrong by throwing a 16-year-old boy out into the streets in the middle of December. She left her husband, who doesn’t even know Lance exists, because his family accepted his younger brother when he came out to them. I have never been so close to hitting a woman, as I was when I was listening to her bullshit. She thinks she did the moral thing. It's no wonder the boy is shy, growing up with that witch.”

“The police called and told me that they didn’t find anything out last night. That's good since it means that he isn’t in any of the hospitals or morgues. Gus has been wandering the halls all morning. He called everyone he could think of and has them out looking for Lance. We'll have to take him out soon, to look for Lance. or he will explode from frustration. He still blames himself for whatever might have happened to Lance.”

“Sunshine, I was thinking on my way back here that maybe we could. . .”

“Of course we'll take him in. Gus will finally get a younger sibling, even if he is only a couple of months younger. Gus will be a great big brother.”

“Sunshine have I said that I love you lately?”

“Everyday when you look at me with love in your eyes. We just have to find Lance before anything happens to him.”

“Did you hear that, why is Gus slamming the back door?”

***

“Sonnyboy what is the matter? You look like a ghost. Why did you go into the tree house?”

“Dad I looked out the window of the spare room and I saw tracks in the yard.”

“So?”

“It snowed after we left town Friday afternoon. Lance would be the only one who would be going to the tree house since the snowfall.”

“Did he leave any indication of where he is now?”

“He’s in the tree house.”

“Well why didn’t he come back to the house with you?”

“Gus is he all right? It has been very cold do we need to call 911?”

“Justee, he wouldn't wake up. I yelled at him and I shook him but he wouldn't wake up.” 

“Oh my God, Justin keep Gus here and call 911 I will go and see what has happened.”

***

"Officer, I'm Brian Kinney. I went up into the tree house after my son Gus found his friend up there and couldn't get him awake. I'm pretty sure that Lance is dead."

"Are there any indications of foul play sir?"

"No he is just curled up on the bed frame like he is asleep."

"I can hear the amublance coming up the street I'll just wait for the paramedics before going into the tree house then."

"Unless you need me to stay here I'll go deal with my son. Let me know what you find out as soon as possible."

"Yes sir, I'll do that."

***

"Justin, where is Gus?"

"He is calling off the search for Lance by their friends. He had to do something or he would have collapsed in tears. He is enough of his father's son that he couldn't do that, at least not yet, tonight is going to be tough on the boy."

"Lance is dead Justin, looks to me like he froze to death. Why didn't he find someplace to stay? He had to know when we were coming home."

"Brian you know how shy Lance is -- was. He probably just couldn't bring himself to ask a stranger for help. God Gus is going to be devasted by this. He is going to blame himself for this disaster no matter what we tell him."

"It is times like this that I wish he wasn't a Kinney. We are experts at blaming ourselves for situations that we really aren't to blame for."

"Brian nothing that happened to me was your fault."

"I know that Sunshine, in my head, but my heart says otherwise sometimes. The officer is coming to the house.  
"  
“Mr. Kinney, they have taken the body to the Medical Examiners Office where an autopsy will be done to determine the cause of death. I’m guessing that the determination will be accidental death due to exposure. There was a note addressed to your son. It would probably be good for your son to read it. We found no indications of suicide or any way for the boy to have cut himself so even though he mentions killing himself in the note he didn‘t do so and couldn‘t have done so without leaving the tree house.”

“Thank you detective, are you sure it's OK to leave it with Gus. Gus isn’t taking this very well, shit; how would any 16-year-old take the death of his best friend. You’re sure he should read this note?”

“Yes I think he should. Just don’t lose the notebook in case higher authorities decide they need it. Do you know where his family lives? We'll need to inform them. Though from what is in the the note his mother probably won't care all that much.”

“I know the address but the bitch will probably be thrilled that he is dead. She won’t have to deal with having a queer son. Not that Lance was gay but once she decided that she had proof that he was a faggot she threw him out into the streets and didn’t give a damn about his welfare. I would like her to be punished as severely as possible.”

“I doubt that the DA will do anything Mr. Kinney. If, as I suspect, the death is ruled an accident then there probably isn’t any charge that can be filed against her. You might be able to file something in civil court. You would have to contact a lawyer about that though. Thank you Mr. Kinney for all of your help. Give my condolences to your son. Just when you think the world is becoming a better place to live something like this rears it’s ugly head and makes you wonder if it really is becoming better.”

“Goodbye detective. Please keep me informed on whatever happens with the case. Have the Medical Examiner’s Office contact me about what to do with Lance’s remains; I’m sure that the bitch won’t have anything to do with him. She‘ll probably tell you that he got what he deserved. A boy is dead because of an underwear catalog.”

***

"Gus, Lance is dead."

"No, he can't be dead. He is too young to be dead, he was always a deep sleeper. They should just take him to the hospital and warm him up, then he will wake up and everything will be back to normal. He can stay here with us and everything will be normal."

"Gus, listen to me, Lance is dead, he froze to death. There is nothing we can do but go on with our lives."

"Ok Dad, I'm sorry about that outburst."

"Gus don't hold your feelings inside, that won't help you get over this situation. This is not the time to display your Kinney bravado."

"I'm Ok Uncle Justin, I need to finish calling off the search."

“Gus the detective thought that you should read this note that Lance wrote. They are sure that he didn‘t actually kill himself no matter what he wrote in the note. They are sure that he died from exposure. Do you need some privacy while you read it?”

“Dad just read it to us.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I don’t think I could read anything right now. Why did something like this have to happen because of an underwear catalog?”

“Prejudice makes no sense most of the time Gus. His mother decided he was gay for no good reason and then her biases took over whatever sense she might have had. She will pay as much as we can possibly make her pay.”

“Gus if it gets too difficult for you to hear just say something and I’ll stop.”

“Ok Dad, just read the damn thing.”

“Gus

I’m leaving this letter here so that you will know what happened to me. 

Friday night when I got home from Christmas shopping my mother met me at the door and informed that me that I wasn’t welcome in her home anymore. That I was no longer her son. She had found that underwear catalog that you had brought over so that we could make fun of the stupid types of shorts in it. That catalog proved to her that I was a faggot and she couldn’t have an effing queer polluting her home. 

She said some nasty things about you, your Dad and your Uncle Justin but I couldn’t really understand what she was saying since I still was having problems with the idea that I was gay. I mean shouldn’t I know whether I’m gay or not? I’ve been showering with other boys for years now and not once have I been interested in any of them. Wouldn’t I know if I was interested? 

I know I’ve never looked at any other guy like your Dad looks at your Uncle Justin. I’ve never started glowing because some guy looked at me like your Uncle Justin glows when he knows that your Dad is looking at him. How long have they been together yet they still are so in love with each other that it's obvious just by looking at them? How can I be gay if I have no desire whatsoever to touch another guy? But my mother and our church say I’m gay so I guess I’m gay. I don’t want to be gay. I never said a word to your Dad or your Uncle Justin that I absolutely didn’t have to since my mother made me believe that would contaminate me. They must really think I'm stuck up since I won't talk to them. Did the few times I was in your house contaminate me and cause me to be gay without my knowing it? Did you ever think I was gay and didn’t tell me?

I just stood there and stared at her and I tried to explain why I had the catalog but she just shut the door in my face. I waited for a while thinking that she was just making a joke and would let me in but pretty soon all of the lights were turned off and so I decided that she wasn’t joking. I had been Christmas shopping so I had some money. I just left the presents on the doorstep. I didn’t want to spend all of my money on a motel room and I remembered your tree house so I walked over and spent the night there. It got cold when it started snowing but it wasn’t too bad. Saturday morning I went back home to see if my mother had changed her mind and to get a heavier coat. When I got to the house I saw the last of my belongings being loaded into a Salvation Army truck by my mother and my minister. Iknew then and there that I really must be gay and not worthy of living with my mother if my minister went along with her. 

I remembered what you had told me about the gay part of Pittsburgh so I walked over to Liberty Avenue. After all if I’m gay I should start living in the gay neighborhood. It's still hard to get used to the idea that I’m gay. I figured I would find a place to eat and then start looking for a job and a place to live. It was 3 in the afternoon before I finally found a place to eat. There weren’t many people in the Diner so I was able to order and eat without attracting too much notice. If I’m gay shouldn’t I want other guys to notice me? As I was leaving, around 4, an old woman in a red wig was coming in the door and she told me to come back soon Dumpling, do I look like a dumpling, Gus? I then spent the rest of the afternoon just walking down Liberty Avenue and window-shopping I just couldn’t find the guts to actually go into any of the stores let alone the bars. I don’t have a fake ID so I probably couldn’t get into a bar if I tried. 

If I’m gay why did all of those guys kissing, holding hands, hugging, and even more give me the creeps. Before I knew it the sun went down and I was standing under a lamppost just as it turned on. This short dark haired old guy walked up to me and asked me what I was doing out of the chicken coop and that I should run home to Mommy. Then he just started laughing and walked away and went into some dance club called Bablyon. His comment reminded me that I didn’t have anywhere to stay the night. His laughing at me made me realize that I was just a silly little boy who didn’t know what to do with his life. Who knew being gay would be so hard to figure out? 

I suppose being gay and all I should have just asked some guy on the street if I could spend the night with him but I just couldn’t do that. I walked back to your house and spent the night in the tree house again. When I woke up this morning it was so cold I almost decided to try going back home again. I decided that would be a waste of time so I just wandered the streets. Walking helped warm me up. I bought this notebook and pencil when I got lunch. 

I’m almost out of money and I don’t know what I’m going to do. I came back to the tree house and started writing this note. I decided that my life is over, my mother will have nothing to do with me because she decided that I’m queer yet I know that I’m not gay. I don’t have anyplace to stay, I don’t have any money to live on, and I’m too shy to ask for help from strangers. It's getting so cold maybe it won’t hurt any if I cut my wrists since I can’t feel my fingers. I’m sorry Gus I should be stronger but you’ve known me for 10 years and you know that I’m not strong. I just hope you aren’t the one to find me. I think I'll take a nap before I do the deed. Good bye Gus while I know I’m not gay I do know that I love you like the brother that neither of us ever had.

Lance.

 

“I loved him like a brother too. What am I going to do; he is dead because of me.”

“Gus you know that isn’t true.”

“Do I Uncle Justin? This all started because of an underwear catalog that I took to his house.”

“Gus, listen to me, that woman was just looking for an excuse. She has been sure that Lance was imperfect since before he was born. She used the underwear catalog as an excuse, if it hadn’t been that she would have found another reason to justify her beliefs. Gus I would take all of your pain if I could but I know that's impossible. Grieve for your friend but don’t let it take control of your life. Lance wouldn’t want you to ruin your life and Gus remember that Lance didn’t kill himself it was just a tragic accident.”

“I’ll try Dad but it's going to be so hard. Why is life so unfair? I better go call everyone and finish calling off the search.”

“Gus don’t be afraid to ask us or anyone else in the family if you need help getting over this tragic event.”

“OK Uncle Justin but don’t make me anything for supper I don’t think I could eat anything without throwing it up 10 minutes later. Good night Dad, Uncle Justin. I’ll see you in the morning.

“Night Sonnyboy.”

“Good night Gus.”

***

"Brian wake up. Gus is screaming."

"We knew it was going to happen, let's go, he probably needs us now more than he has ever needed us in his life."

“Gus come here, let it out. I know that you feel terrible but crying will help you get through the pain. Don‘t worry Gus I‘ll hold you tight and I won‘t let you fall.”

“Justee it’s all my fault. I lent him the catalog. I wasn’t here when he came looking for help. I didn’t think to check the tree house as soon as we knew he was missing. It’s all my fault.”

“Gus it isn’t your fault in any way. It was the intolerance of his bitch of a mother. You wouldn‘t have been here even if you hadn‘t gone to Vermont with me and your Dad.”

“Uncle Justin, what is going to happen to Mrs. Smith? She should pay for throwing Lance away.”

“Gus we’ll do what we can but you can’t blame yourself in anyway.”

“I’ll try Dad but it will be hard. How could anyone do what she did?”

“If I knew the answer to that Sonnyboy I could prevent it from happening.”

"Now try to go back to sleep, we'll be here watching after you. You have nothing to be afraid of and nothing to blame yourself for."

"Thanks Uncle Justin, I love you two so much it hurts."

***

“Brian I’m glad that you were there for me when my Dad threw me away. I might have ended the same way as Lance.”

“No Sunshine you would have never ended up like Lance. You wouldn’t have been too shy to ask for help. You had people who would have helped you out if I hadn’t. It was just bad luck that we were out of town when this all came down. But mark my words Justin the bitch will pay. She is not going to get off without paying a price and I don’t mean money.”

“I agree that she should be punished but we can’t go overboard since that won’t let Gus get on with his life.”

“Well Sunshine I’m going to have to disagree with you here, I’ll bet that Sonnyboy is already starting one of his plans to make the witch pay.”

“What does that mean?”

“What is he doing right now?”

“He is finally asleep."

“I hope so but I think it is more likely that he is plotting what he and his friends can do to make Lance's mother's life miserable."

“I wouldn’t take that bet on any odds. We have done a good job raising that boy haven’t we?”

“Yes Sunshine we have.”


	3. The Gus Chronicles(High-School Years)

THANKSGIVING 2017

Gus Peterson-Marcus was a very bored young man. He was the only youngster at his family’s Thanksgiving get-together. The 

next youngest person was his 34 year old Uncle Justin, one of his Dads, who was busy in the kitchen. For some reason, that 

no one had bothered to tell Gus, this year the Thanksgiving gathering was being held at the tiny house of Debbie Novotny 

instead of at one of his parent’s houses, like it always had been as far back as Gus could remember. The family had always 

alternated holiday meals, along with his birthday party, between his Mother's and his Dad’s houses. Whether it was at the 

house of his Mothers or his Dads he had someplace he could go when he got bored with adult talk. Here at Debbie’s he was 

stuck with no safe sanctuary from the adults around him. As much as he loved his Mom and Mama, Dad and Uncle Justin, Emmett, 

Teddy, Mikey and Debbie he could only take so much of their reminiscing at a sitting.

After a while his boredom must have become apparent because Debbie told him “Gussy, I mean Gus, why don’t you go upstairs to 

Michael’s old room where you can listen to your music while we old fogies gossip. I’ll call you when the turkey is ready.” 

“Thanks Debbie I’ll do that.” So Gus went out to his Dad’s Jeep, his Dad always owned a Jeep of some kind(it was some kind of 

joke between Dad and Uncle Justin) and got his player and some discs. He then returned to the house and went upstairs to the 

small room Mikey had grown up in and where Uncle Justin had stayed when he had lived with Debbie and her brother Vic after 

his father had thrown him out for being gay and before he moved in with Dad for good. 

After an hour or so Gus tired of his music and started looking around the room. It had been 3 or 4 years since he had been 

in the room. It hadn’t changed since then and probably hadn’t changed since Mikey had lived in it. Faded Captain Astro 

curtains on the window and motorcyclist wallpaper on the walls. There was an old picture of Mikey and Dad, from when they 

were younger than Gus was now. A couple of sketches done by Uncle Justin; of himself and Dad were still tacked to the wall. 

What with Uncle Justin’s success as an artist they were probably worth a large amount of money now.

As Gus continued snooping he found an old memory book stuck in the desk drawer. It was titled Memories 2001. Being curious 

Gus opened the book and was stunned at what he found. The book was full of newspaper clippings. They all seemed to deal 

with an incident that had happened in May 2001 and the follow-up of the story through that summer. As he leafed through the 

book some of the headlines stood out. 

Student Attacked by Fellow Student

Gay Bashing at St. James Academy

Victim Danced with Adult Man at Prom

St. James Athlete arrested for bashing fellow student

Taylor in Coma

Ad Executive identified as adult in gay bashing incident

Taylor still in coma after 2 weeks

Hobbs Plea Bargains to Lesser Charge

Taylor Leaves Hospital

Judge Gives Probation and Community Service

Gus was stunned at the headlines and the tidbits of the stories he read while he browsed through the book. In his entire 

life nobody had ever mentioned that Uncle Justin had been attacked and nearly killed at his High School Prom. Gus’ thoughts 

were interrupted when Debbie stuck her head in the door. 

“Honey, dinner is almost ready. What's so interesting?” 

“I found this book full of newspaper articles and I never knew that this happened.” 

“Oh shit honey, I wish that you hadn’t found that or that I hadn’t saved it. Promise me you won’t say anything to anyone. 

After the holidays we can talk about it if you want. If your Dads haven’t said anything it's still a painful subject for 

them.” 

“OK Debbie, but I'll hold you to your promise for after the holidays.” 

“I never had any doubts about that Gussy, just a little hope.”

***

 

After everyone had gone home Deb called Justin’s mother, Jennifer. “Hi this's Debbie, I’ve got a problem. Gussy found the 

old memory book Vic filled with newspaper clippings from the bashing.” 

"Oh Deb why didn’t you get rid of that?” 

“I had forgotten that I had it to tell you the truth. Anyway I got Gussy to agree to not say anything to his Dads and to 

wait to talk to me until after the holidays. What should I tell him?” 

“No more than absolutely necessary to answer his questions.” 

“I’ll try but you know my big mouth.” 

“Deb I think Justin could handle the opening up of old memories about that disaster better than Brian could. I’m not sure he 

totally got over the blame he felt for not protecting Justin that night. I know my actions didn’t help at the time.” 

“Don’t blame yourself Jenn, we all came down too hard on Brian. I certainly should have known better, after all I'd known 

him for 16 years.” 

“Deb I’m sure that Gus'll be paying all of us a visit about this subject, should we warn the others?” 

“No I don’t think so, just emphasize to Gussy to not bring it up to Brian and Justin.” 

“OK Deb I’ll see you soon.”

***

 

All through the holiday season Gus was thinking about what he'd learned at Debbie’s house. It still surprised him that his 

Dads had never told him about the incident. He finally decided that they must still be in pain over the incident if they 

hadn’t been able to talk about it in over 16 years. It never entered his mind that they might have gotten over it and just 

never felt the need to talk about it with him. By Christmas he had pretty much decided what he was going to do for his Dads. 

All that remained was to gather as much information as he could. Since the payoff of his plan wouldn’t happen for well over 

a year he decided that he wouldn’t push his family members in finding out what he needed to learn. He would take his time in 

asking his questions so that they wouldn’t figure out that he was up to anything. Of course like the typical teenager he 

underestimated the intelligence of the adults in his life.

***

 

NEW YEARS 2018

Gus spent New Years with his Dads so that they could watch the college Bowl Games. Penn State was in the Rose Bowl for the 

first time in many years so they had big plans for watching that particular game. They would watch the earlier games to 

build their spirit for the big Penn State-Nebraska matchup for the National Championship. 

Since Gus was in the 7th grade, when Gus started playing organized football, his Dads had started following the sport, 

actually Uncle Justin was the one who really followed the game. While his Dad went to every game that Gus had ever played in 

and watched games with him on TV he really didn’t learn the game. Uncle Justin on the other hand truly became a fan of the 

sport for his own enjoyment. It started out as a way for him to get closer to Gus, since Gus truly loved the game, but it 

became more than that over time. 

***

On the 2nd of January Gus drove over to Debbie’s from his Dads’ house, to find out what she knew about the bashing incident 

at his Uncle Justin’s Prom. He knew she would be home. Debbie had bought the Liberty Diner, with Michael’s help, several 

years earlier. As the boss she spent much more time at home than she had when she worked at the Diner as a waitress. Though 

there were times when she thought that she wouldn’t mind trading the pain of management for the pain in her feet from waiting 

tables.

Gus knocked on the door, he'd always been a proper gentleman, he never walked into anyone’s home without knocking no matter 

how well he knew them or how many times he had been in the home. 

Debbie answered the door and let him in with a sigh. “Gussy I was hoping you would've dropped this search of yours, but I 

didn’t expect it.” 

“Well Debbie I just have this need to know, I don’t really know why but I do.” 

“Well do you want anything? Juice, soda, or a snack?” 

“No I’m fine maybe later.” 

“Well what do you want to know?” 

“Everything you witnessed that night and during the weeks until Uncle Justin left the hospital.”

“Remember Gus it has been over 16 years I can’t guarantee that I remember everything.” 

“That’s OK just what you remember. May I borrow the book so that I can read the articles?”

“Sure, but I sure wish I had gotten rid of that book.” 

“What is done is done Deb.” 

“Quit sounding like Sunshine.” 

“I can’t help it he helped raise me you know?” 

“Yes and you're the spitting image of him except for the fact that you look just like Brian with blond hair.” 

“You’d be surprised how often people tell me that.” 

Debbie chuckled at that response.

“OK then, first of all Jennifer and I convinced Justin that he should go to the Prom, that it was one of his rites of passage 

and if he didn’t go he would regret it for the rest of his life.”

“Why didn’t he want to go?” 

“He thought that the Prom was for straight kids and since he was gay it wasn’t for him. We convinced him otherwise. There 

were times in the coming weeks when I wished that we hadn’t been successful. 

What we didn’t know, until after the dance, was that Justin asked your Dad to go to the Prom as his date. Brian turned him 

down, of course, so Justin took Daphne, but as best friends not as a date. The night of the Prom your mother, 

Melanie,Jennifer, Vic and I were downstairs, while you were sleeping in my room, waiting to see what magic Emmett would 

perform on Justin. All I can say was that he made Justin look gorgeous. I don’t know what he did but he did a great job, 

Justin was and always has been good looking but that night when he came down the stairs he was just gorgeous, he just glowed.

Justin then left to take Daphne to the Prom and Emmett left to go somewhere with Teddy. Lindsay, Melanie, Jennifer and I 

decided that we would wait to see Justin after the Prom, to hear how his night turned out, so we started playing cards, Vic 

was relegated to baby-sitting you. 

The Prom was supposed to be over at midnight so we were expecting Justin to get home about 1 AM. At 11:30 or so I got a call 

from Daphne who was almost hysterical. Justin had been attacked by a classmate and was on the way to the hospital. We 

rushed there, Lindsay had to drive since Jennifer and I were totally fucked with fear

We were horrified when we got to the hospital and the Doctors couldn’t tell us anything more than that they were doing what 

they could for Justin. What scared me even more was when I saw Brian sitting in a hallway just staring into space with tears 

streaming down his face. In all the years I had known Brian Kinney I couldn’t remember him crying about anything, and he had 

gone through some fucking terrible times with that bastard of a father he had. Michael was trying to comfort him but was 

having no success. 

Brian was off in some other world. If Justin hadn’t made it through that night I don’t think Brian would have either. That 

probably is what had scared Brian so much, that he could lose Justin after he had finally admitted to himself that he 

actually cared about him as more than a sex partner. Everyone had known for months that Brian cared deeply about Justin but 

Brian hadn’t been able to admit this fact to himself. I’ve wondered over the years what happened to finally make him admit 

it to himself. Since going to the Prom and dancing with Justin in front of his entire class, not to mention kissing him, was 

telling the world that he loved Justin Taylor. Not that he would have ever admitted, verbally anyway, to that fact.

Michael and Emmett were able to get Brian into the bathroom a few times during the next day and night, otherwise he would 

have pissed himself, and worse, he was that out of his mind with grief but they had no luck getting him to eat though he did 

drink a little water. Michael managed to find time to go to the Loft and get Brian some clean clothing. His Tux was 

spattered with Justin’s blood and he had the scarf he had used to staunch Justin’s head wound clutched in his hand. 

Everyone tried to get through to Brian but no one had any success he just continued to stare into space hardly even blinking. 

Then early Sunday morning the Doctor came to the waiting room and told us that Justin had slipped into a coma. That they 

had no idea when he would wake up from it. That they couldn’t know what damage had been done until he woke up. But there 

was no reason to believe that he wouldn’t wake up fairly soon. As soon as the Doctor left the waiting room Brian just woke 

up. He asked Michael why he was still in Pittsburgh, that he better be on the next flight to Portland, to be with David, and 

then he just walked out of the room. Then as far as we knew he never came back to the hospital again.

Justin was in his coma for 2 weeks and almost the first words out of his mouth after he woke up was asking where Brian was. 

Then no matter who visited him he would ask when Brian was coming to see him. It broke everyone’s heart because we all knew 

that Brian had gone back to his old ways and wasn’t going to come to the hospital to see Justin. 

So Justin worked as hard as he could in his physical therapy so the Doctors would discharge him so that he could go find 

Brian on his own. What we didn’t know was that Brian came to the hospital every night and watched Justin sleep for hours at 

a time. He blamed himself for not protecting Justin from that asshole Chris Hobbs and couldn’t bring himself to face Justin 

and see the blame in his eyes. While Brian should have known that Sunshine wouldn’t blame him for anything he couldn’t think 

that clearly. He knew that he blamed himself and therefore so would everyone else in the world including Justin. The rest of 

us should have known that Brian hadn’t abandoned Justin like we thought he had. My only excuse was that you don’t think 

straight when you are in extreme distress. 

The Doctors released Justin 4 weeks after he came out of the coma. That night Vic and I went to Jenn’s condo to celebrate 

Justin’s homecoming. We had to push our way through the throng of reporters trying to find anything they could about Justin. 

I forget what happened that night to cause the interest of the news media to go away from Justin’s bashing but we were all 

happy that we didn’t have to deal with them anymore. 

Later that night Justin snuck out of the house and got Daphne to drive him to Liberty Ave. where he started looking for 

Brian. He found Brian and Michael, who had returned from Oregon, in Woody’s and he and Brian went back to the Loft where 

they had a talk and then Brian took Justin back to Jennifer’s. It was amazing the change in Brian’s behavior after that 

little talk he had with Justin. Justin has always been so good for Brian. 

The next week was Chris Hobbs’ sentencing hearing where the son of bitch judge just gave that bastard Hobbs a god-damned 

suspended sentence and fucking community service. I could have taken a crowbar to the asshole judge and that son of a bitch 

Hobbs but Michael and the guys took me home before I caused too much of a ruckus. Well I guess that is pretty much all I 

remember. Any questions?”

“No, you’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank you. Don’t worry I certainly won’t mention anything to Dad or Uncle 

Justin. You know that I would never do anything to cause either of them any pain. I love them so much it hurts sometimes.” 

“Yes you get that from Justin.”

 

After Gus left Deb called Jennifer. “Hi, Gus was just here he’ll probably be over to see you very soon if not today.” 

“How'd he take the news Deb?” 

“Well considering how much I overloaded him with pretty well. He's planning something but I don’t have a clue as to what it 

is. I’m sure that he'll do everything he can so that it doesn’t hurt Brian or Justin but he can’t know how they will handle 

the opening of old wounds.”

“Deb it might be good for Justin and Brian to finally deal with it once and for all.” 

“I hope so but you never know how Brian'll react to anything. Of course if anyone had told me back then that Brian would ever 

be monogamous I would have laughed in their face. Justin and Gus were the best things to ever happen to Brian Kinney and I’m 

sure he knows it.” 

***

 

While Jennifer prepared herself for Gus’ visit he didn’t come by her house for over 4 weeks.   
Gus was being sly. He figured that if he spread his fact finding visits over months no one would put it together that he was 

up to something. He also had a lot of other things going on in his life he was a Junior in High School after all. He never 

thought that they would think twice about him asking them about something that had happened before he had turned one.

In early February 2018 Gus pushed the doorbell of his Grandma Jenn’s condo. 

“Hi Gus, what brings you to this part of town?” 

“May I come in?” 

“Of course, where are my manners?” 

“Grandma I found out that Uncle Justin was attacked at his High School Prom and I just have to know everything I can about 

that situation. I don’t know why but I have to know, I suppose because Dad and Uncle Justin have never mentioned it and they 

have never kept anything from me.”

“Gus I'll tell you what I know but I want you do promise me you won’t bother your Dads about it. It was a very tough time in 

their lives and I don’t want them hurt again.” 

“Don’t worry about that Grandma, the last thing I would ever do is cause them pain. I don’t want to cause you any pain either 

so you don’t have to tell me anything if it's too hard for you to do.” 

“I know that you wouldn’t cause any of us pain on purpose but it could happen accidentally especially with your Dad. He 

blamed himself for not protecting Justin and I don’t want that brought up again.” 

“Why would he blame himself for something he didn’t do?” 

“Gus, your Dad was a very different person back then, he didn’t feel that he deserved to be loved and so he tried to ignore 

it or chase it away. Justin wouldn’t back down about his love for Brian and eventually Brian admitted to himself that he 

could be loved and that he could love back. Then that SOB Chris Hobbs hit Justin with a baseball bat and Brian wasn’t able 

to stop it, he blamed himself and I didn’t do anything to help him deny that false blame. In fact I made things worse by 

blaming him as well.” 

“Didn’t you like Dad?” 

“Gus you have to remember that back then Justin was 18 and your Dad was 30 that was very hard for me to accept along with the 

gay issue. I would've had problems with the age difference even if Brian had been a woman and Justin straight. Justin’s dad 

on the other hand just had problems with Justin being gay and Brian’s age just added to his disgust. As far as I know Craig 

and Justin haven’t seen or spoken to each other since late 2000.” 

“Is that why you divorced him?” 

“It was a part of it but certainly not all.” 

“What do you know about the bashing incident?” 

“I spent that Friday night at Deb’s, we played cards with your mother and Melanie while we waited for Justin to come home and 

tell us all about his big night. I hadn’t had such an enjoyable night in years. It's always amazing how four women can talk 

about just every subject in the book. Vic was upstairs watching you. Around 11:30 Daphne called to let us know that Justin 

was in the hospital. Your mother drove us to the hospital, since neither I or Deb could've driven safely, if at all, where 

the doctors told us that he had been struck in the head by a baseball bat but until he woke up they wouldn’t know the extent 

of any brain or physical damage. 

Even more frightening than not knowing how Justin was going to be was to see Brian staring into space totally oblivious to 

the world. He just sat there until Michael and Emmett forcibly stood him up and took him to the bathroom Saturday morning. 

But when the doctor came, Sunday morning, and told us that Justin had gone into a coma Brian came back to the world, told 

Michael to go to Portland and then he walked out of the hospital. Everyone was shocked but we were willing to believe that 

he had gone back to his old ways. That Justin was just a trick to be used and then thrown out. I found out 3 or 4 days 

later, from the night nurse, that Brian was coming to the hospital every night to watch Justin sleep. I didn’t tell anyone 

because it suited my selfish purposes for Brian’s friends to think he had totally abandoned Justin . I regret that to this 

day though your Dad forgave me long ago. Justin was in the coma for two weeks and after he woke up all he wanted to know was 

when Brian was coming to visit. I should've told him that Brian came every night after he was asleep but I hoped that if he 

thought Brian had abandoned him he would get over his crush. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He worked his tail off in 

physical therapy so that he would be released from the hospital so he would be able to go find Brian. Which he did the very 

first night he was out of the hospital and then when Brian brought him home I wanted to just go out to him and tell him to 

leave Justin alone and never see him again. I didn’t do it then but I wanted to.

I’m ashamed to admit how much I wanted to blame Brian for everything that happened that night. Then to add insult to injury 

the judge gave Hobbs a suspended sentence and community service. A day or two after the sentencing I did finally tell Brian 

to leave Justin alone and never see him again. That's something else I have regretted almost from the minute the words came 

out of my mouth. Luckily that turned out reasonably well. While Brian agreed to stay out of Justin’s life Justin refused to 

go along with our plan and within a week I was forced, for Justin’s well being, to ask Brian to let Justin move in with him 

at the Loft. 

As bad as the bashing was it did eventually lead to Justin and Brian becoming the loving couple they are today. Do you 

remember your part in that Gus?” 

“No, what did I do?” 

“They had split up over something, that they have never told me about, but both of them were miserable while they were apart. 

One day you managed to get them in close proximity to each other and the next thing they knew they were kissing and hugging 

and talking. The talking was the important part of them getting back together. I guess you were about 30 months old, that's 

probably why you don’t remember.” 

“Well thanks for your time Grandma. Remember if you ever need me to do anything that all you have to do is call.” 

“Sure honey, while you’re here you just as well take the trash out and I've some things upstairs that I need taken out to my 

storage area in the garage.” 

“OK Grandma I’ll get right to it.” Gus replied with a grin.

***

 

Keeping with his plan of not pushing too fast Gus waited until St. Patrick’s Day to visit his Aunty Em. 

“Hi Emmett” Gus said after the door of the apartment finally opened after his 5 minutes of pounding on said door. 

“Couldn’t you take a hint and go away?” 

“What hint?” 

“Usually if no one answers after a minute of knocking they aren’t home.” 

“But Aunty Em I knew you were home and I really need to talk to you.” 

“All right Gus come on in, don’t notice the mess.” 

“What mess?” Gus answered as he stepped over something in the middle of the hallway. 

“Think you're cute don’t you?” 

“Brian Kinney’s son thinking he's cute, no way.” 

“Well what do you want to know that's so important you banged on my door for forever?”

“Last Thanksgiving I found a memory book at Debbie’s filled with newspaper clippings about Uncle Justin being gay bashed at 

his High School Prom. For some reason I need to find out everything I can about that incident. Don’t worry I’m not going to 

say anything to my Dads, Debbie and Grandma Jenn made me promise to not do that. Not that I planned on doing it anyway.” 

“Well Gus there really isn’t that much I can tell you.” 

“But you were there before the Prom and at the hospital.” 

“Well we all were at the hospital while Justin was there.” 

“Any details you can remember would help me deal with this.” 

“Why do you need to deal with this, you weren’t even one year old when it happened?” 

“I don’t know I just know that I need to know in order to understand my Dads better. For some reason they've never said 

anything about it and they've never kept anything from me, well they've never given me any details about their sex lives not 

that I want any details about their sex lives.” 

“That isn’t 100 % true Gussy.” 

“What?” 

“Well you probably don’t remember but when you were 3 you managed to see them one night when they thought you were asleep. 

What was interesting and why I remember is that you made up a song about what you saw.” 

“I did?” 

“Yep it was an interesting little ditty, it actually led Brian to decide to sell the Loft and to buy the house he and Justin 

live in today.” 

“Do you remember it?” 

“Yes but Brian would have me singing soprano if I told you, You will have to ask him.” 

“Well back to the bashing.” 

“Damn it Gus I was hoping you would have forgotten that line of questioning. That was a very painful time for all of us. We 

really did fear for Justin’s life, and Brian’s.” 

“Well I won’t force you to tell me anything Emmett.” 

“No I'll tell you what I can.” 

“I’ve heard how you made Justin look gorgeous.” 

“Been talking to Deb have you?” 

“Yes.” 

“Well when you have such a great subject to start with it's easy to be successful. I altered his tux just a little so that 

it fit him perfectly and I spent a few minutes on his hair, well more than a few, and he did look gorgeous. It made it all 

the harder to see how bad he looked in the hospital the next morning. After Justin left to get Daphne I went to be with 

Teddy. Ted had problems of his own that night so don’t ask him about the bashing Gus, he doesn’t know anything and I don’t 

want him to remember his problems. OK?” 

“Sure Aunty Em.” 

“The next morning I got a call from Michael and I went to the hospital, I hadn’t read the paper yet or turned on the TV so I 

didn’t know about the bashing or I would have been at the hospital before he called. While it was horrible how bad Justin 

looked it terrified me to see how out of this world Brian was. Brian was always the most self-assured of our group so to see 

him out of control like that was frightening. He just stared into space, his face was streaked with tear tracks, he had 

cried himself out by then. Just the idea of Brian Kinney crying was frightening to me. 

Michael and I forcibly stood him up and walked him to the bathroom, Michael had to do everything for him because he just 

stood there staring into space. We tried to get him to eat but the best we could do was to get him to take a few sips of 

water. Michael then went to the Loft where he got some clothes for Brian. We all tried talking to Brian that Saturday but 

he just stayed oblivious to everything around him. Sunday morning the Doctor told Deb and Jennifer, and the rest of us who 

were in the waiting room that Justin was in a coma. That until he came out of the coma they couldn’t determine the extent of 

his injuries. Brian just came to his senses, he told Michael to get the fuck out of Pittsburgh, go to David and get on with 

his life. He then turned on his heel and walked out of the hospital. 

We all just assumed that he had gone back to his old ways and had abandoned Justin. Finally deciding that the trick that 

wouldn’t go away wasn’t worth the bother anymore. Why play with a broken toy when there are so many new ones available at the 

toy store. We should've known better, Brian hadn’t followed any of his rules with Justin so why we would think that he 

suddenly was going by those rules still surprises me. Maybe we just wanted to have someone to blame and Brian was 

convenient. We found out later that he'd been going every night to watch Justin sleep. He was afraid to face Justin since 

he blamed himself for letting that bastard Hobbs bash Justin. That's all that I know Gus.” 

“Thanks Aunty Em, rest assured that I won’t do anything that'll hurt my Dads, though I might ask them about a ditty made up 

by a 3 year old.” 

“Well if you do make sure you have a clear path to an outside door.” Emmett said with a hearty laugh.

 

“Hello.” 

“Hi Michael.” 

“What do you want Em, do you know what time it is?” 

“Michael it isn’t that early what were you up to last night?” 

“None of your business, so why did you call me on my one day off from the store?” 

“Guess who just visited me?” 

“Em just get on with whatever you want to tell me.” 

“OK Michael it won’t take long and you can get back to your nap. Gus was just here asking about Justin’s bashing.” 

“What the hell, how did he find out about that, we all agreed, years ago, to not talk about that in front of him. Brian'll be 

fucking furious.” 

“He found a memory book at your mom’s last Thanksgiving. He says he just has to find out everything he can so that he can 

better understand his Dads. You know as well as I do that means he's planning to do something for them. Should we let them 

know that he knows about the bashing?” 

“No lets just let it play out by itself, Gus is a very bright boy he won’t do anything to harm them.” 

“OK Michael, I’m sure he'll be to see you before too long.”

***

 

While Gus didn’t plan on another question session anytime soon he knew he had to talk with Daphne when she flew into 

Pittsburgh the Saturday after St. Patrick’s Day since she never knew her schedule very far in advance and wouldn’t know when 

she would be back in town. So when his Uncle Justin mentioned at Sunday dinner that she was back in town Gus knew that he 

had to talk to her before she flew out again. So the next day he called her phone and set up a time that they could talk.

“Gus you were very mysterious about wanting to talk to me. Are you suddenly interested in older women? That would make you 

even more like Justin though, going after an older person.” Daphne said with a laugh. 

“No, it has to do with Uncle Justin being bashed in 2001.” 

“Why would you want to know about that?” 

“I found out about it last Thanksgiving and for some reason that I can’t articulate I have to know everything I can about 

that night and the weeks following it. Before you say anything I have no plans on saying anything about this subject to Dad 

or Uncle Justin.” 

“Good, that was a horrible time for them and no one wants them to relive that horror.” 

“But what do you remember about that night Daphne?”

“Justin and I had gone through a rough stretch where we hardly spoke to each other. We'd known each other since kindergarten 

and had been best friends since the 2nd grade so for us to not talk was a terrible time for me, though Justin would say I was 

the one that went weird. Any way when Brian turned Justin down about going to the Prom Justin asked me to go as best 

friends. That week before Prom was one of the happiest of my life. I was going to go the Senior Prom with my best friend 

even if it was just as best friends. But most importantly we were talking to one another again. That Friday night Justin 

came to my house to pick me up. He came to the door so that he would have to talk to my parents instead of just waiting in 

the car like I told him to do. My folks had been listening to Mr. Taylor and so weren’t too happy about me going to the Prom 

with Justin. By the time we left he had them eating out of his hand again. They realized he was the same Justin that he had 

always been but that they wouldn’t have to worry about him doing anything with me. Little did they know. 

After eating a meal that certainly wasn’t worth what Justin paid for it, and he paid for both of us even though I told him I 

would pay my share, we went to the ballroom of the hotel. We had a great time talking and dancing. It was kind of amusing 

to see how miserable Chris Hobbs was even though he was there with the head cheerleader. Chris had been picking on Justin 

all year, supposedly because he didn’t like the fact that Justin was gay.

Then I noticed that Brian had shown up, when I first saw him he looked like a deer in headlights. It looked like he was 

thinking what am I doing here, this's the biggest mistake of my life. Then he spotted Justin and the look on his face just 

changed to one of joy. He joined us, we chatted a bit and then he asked if he could borrow my date. He took Justin by the 

hand and led him to the dance floor, everyone just moved out of their way. The DJ started playing ‘The Last Dance’ by the 

Drifters. You know it just occurred to me Gus that song was totally different from everything else the DJ had been playing, 

Brian must have arranged for it to be played once they got on the dance floor. Then they started to ballroom dance, it was 

amazing, I didn’t know that either of them could dance like that. They moved so gracefully, then Justin removed Brian’s 

jacket as a part of the dance and threw it to me. Brian had a white silk scarf around his neck and they put it on each 

other’s neck as they danced. Then after some special moves, with Brian dipping Justin and picking him up and spinning around 

they just had the most romantic kiss. Brian took Justin by the hand again and led him out of the room, Justin was just 

floating on air. After about 5 minutes they came back, they were both flushed, and got Brian’s jacket from me. Brian told 

Justin to come to the Loft after the Prom was over and he had taken me home. I told them to go that I could drive Justin’s 

mother’s car home. They both insisted that we finish the Prom festivities and that Justin would escort me home like a proper 

gentleman. 

Justin then walked with Brian to his Jeep to say goodbye. After about 10 minutes I started to worry about Justin not coming 

back so I went to the parking garage where I saw that Brian was sitting on the ground holding Justin and rocking back and 

forth as he tried to hold his white scarf onto Justin’s head to stop the bleeding. Chris Hobbs was lying on the floor and 

moaning with pain. About then an ambulance and a cop car drove up. Chris tried to claim that Brian had attacked him, Brian 

just said which one was hit in the head? So the EMTs got Justin on a stretcher and into the ambulance and Brian got in as 

well and it raced off to the hospital. The cops arrested Chris and called for another ambulance. By now most of the Prom 

goers had heard what had happened and were in the garage. None of Chris’ friends thought it wise to say anything in his 

defense. I called Debbie to let her know that Justin had been hurt and was on his way to the hospital. Then I called my 

parents and told them that Justin had been attacked and that I was going to the hospital to see how he was doing. I had to 

get a friend to drive me since Justin had the keys to his mother’s car with him. At the hospital I joined up with Mrs. 

Taylor and Debbie, who were trying to find out Justin’s condition. It was terrible to hear what the doctors had to say but 

it was horrifying to see Brian just sitting in the hallway staring into space with tears running down his face. While 

Michael was trying to comfort him he was having no luck. After a while my parents showed up, talked to Mrs. Taylor for a bit 

and then they took me home. I was so afraid for both of them, that Justin would die and that Brian would never come back to 

this world without his “Sunshine”. 

When I went back the next day the doctors still didn’t know anything and Brian was still staring into space though he was no 

longer in his tux. On Sunday Justin had gone into a coma and Brian was gone. Emmett told me that as soon as the Doctor had 

said that Justin was in a coma that Brian had come to his senses, told Michael to go to Portland and had walked out of the 

hospital. While Justin was still in his coma we had graduation, when his name was called he got a standing ovation. I still 

wonder how many of those people who stood and clapped said nothing when Chris was picking on Justin throughout the school 

year. Chris’ name wasn’t called though I know he did get his diploma in the mail.

After Justin came out of the coma he immediately started asking when Brian was coming to visit. I didn’t know what to say 

since we all believed that Brian had given up on Justin and wasn’t ever going to see him again. I just couldn’t understand 

that since I had seen how much Brian loved Justin as they danced. Justin worked as hard as he could at his physical therapy 

so he could go home. That first night after he was released from the hospital he called me to come over to his new house and 

drive him to Liberty Ave.. We did go by the Loft first but Brian wasn’t home. I let him out like he wanted, and he did find 

Brian and they went back to the Loft and had a talk. Justin told me later that the reason Brian didn’t come and see him at 

the hospital was because he blamed himself for Justin being hurt. Justin being Justin he immediately told Brian that it 

wasn’t his fault and I guess that did help Brian get over some of his pain from the incident. Then Hobbs only got a 

suspended sentence and community service.” 

“Thanks Daphne that helps me understand why they have never said anything to me.” 

“Whatever you are planning Gus make sure that it can’t backfire on you. I don’t want Justin or Brian hurt again.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Gus don’t play the innocent, there's no way you aren’t planning to do something with the information you're digging up. I’d 

tell you to give up your idea but you are Brian Kinney’s son with a big dash of Justin Taylor so I know that would be a waste 

of breath. Just be careful.” 

“Am I that transparent?” 

“Yes, you can’t lie any better than Justin ever could.” 

“Yes I'm planning something but I guarantee that it won’t cause anyone any pain.” 

“You can’t guarantee anything Gus when it deals with how other people deal with situations.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind Daphne.” 

“But make sure you let me know how everything turns out.” 

“OK.”

***

 

After Easter dinner at the Peterson-Marcus home Gus asked Mikey if he could come by the comic book store someday after school 

for a confidential conversation. 

“Sure Gus anytime you want to talk I’m there for you.” 

“Thanks Mikey, just don’t say anything to my Dads.” 

“Why?” 

“You’ll just have to wait and see won’t you?” Gus said with an evil grin. 

“Gus you get more like Brian everyday.” 

“Thanks Mikey.”

The next Wednesday Gus found his way to the comic book store. “Hi Mikey. Do you have some time for me to ask you some 

questions?” 

“Sure, the game room is empty for a change.” They moved to the game room at the back of the store. 

“Last Thanksgiving I found out about Uncle Justin being bashed at his Prom. I have this need to know everything that 

happened back then.” 

“Why?” 

“I wish I knew.” 

“Who've you talked to already?” 

“What makes you think I have talked to anyone else?” 

“You found out in November it's now April, if you hadn’t talked to anyone else why weren’t you here asking me this question 

months ago?” 

“I guess you caught me Mikey, I’ve talked to Debbie, Grandma Jenn, Emmett, and Daphne.”

“Why not your Dads?” 

“Because I don’t want to take the chance of hurting them.” 

“What about your Mom and Melanie?” 

“I didn’t thing they would be able to keep my questions secret from Dad and Uncle Justin.”

“You’re probably right about that. What makes you think I won’t tell them?” 

“Because you don’t want to cause Dad any more pain than I do.” 

“I guess you know me about as well as I know you. Well whatever you're planning to do make sure there's no way it can be 

misinterpreted, especially by Brian.” 

“What makes you think I'm planning anything.” 

“Gus I/ve known you all of your life, if there's one thing you have learned from Justin it's to take care of everyone around 

you.” 

“Well I do have a plan but it isn’t going to cause anyone any pain, I guarantee it.” 

“Don’t be so sure, since your Dad'll be involved.” 

“Why do people keep saying things like that, Dad isn’t overly sensitive.” 

“Gus I've known your Dad for almost twice your lifetime, he can be very oversensitive.”

“Well what do you remember about the Prom disaster?” 

“I had finally decided that I was going to go to Portland with David and had rushed to the airport. I was just about to 

board the plane when my phone rang. I almost didn’t answer when I saw it was from Brian but I did since lifelong habits are 

very hard to break. While I don’t remember his exact words I do remember the abject terror in his voice. I'd dealt with 

Brian’s pain many times, it usually had to do with his father, but this was magnitudes worse than anything I'd ever heard 

from him, as you know he usually shows his emotions non-verbally this time he had to show them through his voice. So I 

turned around and rushed to the hospital. 

Since Brian wasn’t a relative of Justin’s they hadn’t let him into the ER and I found him sitting in a hallway. He was just 

staring into space and tears were streaming down his face. I tried to comfort him but I really don’t think he was even aware 

that I was there. As everyone showed up waiting for news on Justin they were all amazed at Brian’s state. If Justin had died 

that night Brian would have followed him. I've no doubt about that which made his subsequent behavior even more surprising. 

Saturday morning Emmett and I stood Brian up and walked him to the bathroom, I had to do everything, pull down his pants, sit 

him down, wipe him and pull his pants up, wipe the blood off of his face. He simply wasn’t in this world. We tried to get 

him to eat but the best we could do was to get a few sips of water down him. 

I then went to the Loft to get him some clean clothing, his tux was spattered with Justin’s blood. When I got to the Loft I 

was amazed at what I saw. Brian had obviously been planning on having a celebration with Justin after the Prom. There was a 

bottle of champagne sitting in melted ice water on the table along with a beautiful flower arrangement, the refrigerator was 

filled with all of Justin’s favorites and there was a path of rose petals leading to the bed from the table. The bed was 

covered with more rose petals and it was surrounded by candles just waiting to be lit. I had never known Brian to do 

anything so romantic. I almost went back out into the hall to make sure I was in the right apartment. Rose petals, I 

wouldn't have guessed that Brian even knew where to buy rose petals let alone be willing to use them. I knew how hard it 

would be for Brian to return to the Loft and find this reminder of how wrong things had turned out so I quickly cleaned the 

place up. 

I then got some casual clothes for Brian and returned to the hospital. We got Brian changed but we couldn’t get the scarf he 

had used to staunch Justin’s head wound away from him. That damn scarf. We took him to the bathroom a few more times but he 

still wouldn’t eat. Sunday morning the Doctor came to the waiting room and told Jennifer that Justin had slipped into a 

coma, that they didn’t know when he would come out of it, that they couldn’t assess any brain damage until he did wake up but 

that there was no reason to think that the coma would last very long. 

As soon as the Doctor left Brian just woke up, he told me to get the fuck out of Pittsburgh, get my ass to Portland and be 

with David, he then walked out of the hospital. I made sure that things were under control with Justin and made arrangements 

to fly to Portland. Looking back I should have stayed in Pittsburgh, I might have been able to get through to Brian where 

all of the others failed. My relationship with David tanked and I returned to Pittsburgh the day before Justin was released 

from the hospital. I found out that Brian hadn’t been to see Justin at all and that he had gone back to his drugging and 

tricking ways. I found him in the backroom of Babylon but it was clear to me that he wasn’t enjoying anything. The next day 

I went to the Loft where I tried to get him to go and see Justin at the hospital, I didn’t know that Justin had been released 

by that time. Brian refused to go saying that there was nothing that he could do. He then decided we would go to Woody’s but 

that he needed a shower. Wandering around the Loft I accidentally managed to see that he was wearing the scarf covered with 

Justin’s blood under his clothes. I should've confronted him but I have never been one to confront people especially Brian. 

When we got to Woody’s I tried to get him to admit that he needed help, but in his most Brian way he declined to admit that 

there was anything wrong with him. I'd never seen him in such bad shape but as long as he wouldn’t admit it to himself there 

was nothing I could do. While he went to the bathroom Justin showed up. We didn’t know it at the time but part of his trauma 

from the bashing was a fear of being touched and being close to other people so for him to seek out Brian on Liberty Avenue 

took a lot of courage since he had to move through so many crowds of people, many of whom recognized him and wanted to talk 

to him about the bashing. When Brian came back and saw Justin he sobered up immediately, I’ve never seen anything like that 

instant sobering up before or since. The two returned to the Loft for a talk which started Brian on the road to recovery 

because the very next day he was in much better shape. At the Hobbs sentencing hearing the only one more upset by the 

lightness of the sentence than my Mom was Brian though he didn’t show it quite as obviously as Ma did. He did get even with 

that judge though, you’ll have to ask him someday.” 

“Thanks Mikey, I know that this had to be hard for you.” 

“Surprisingly, it felt good Gus.”

 

“Emmett, I finally got my visit from Gus. I imagine that I was the last one on his fact finding expeditions. I wonder how 

long it will be before we see some results?” 

“Well Mikey I hope that it turns out as well as Gus hopes it will. Will you be at Babylon tonight?” 

“Of course, well goodbye Em.” 

“Bye Mikey.”

***

 

Gus had left the comic book store and returned home. Once in his room he got out the notebook that he'd been using to write 

down what he'd found out and started to organize what everyone had told him. Basically they had a wonderful time at the Prom. 

Uncle Justin was having a good time with Daphne and then he had a wonderful time after Dad came and danced with him. But 

then Chris Hobbs ruined their after Prom plans by hitting Uncle Justin with a baseball bat. Dad was not able to stop Hobbs 

in time and thus blamed himself. Uncle Justin was in the hospital for 6 weeks but never saw Dad since he only came after 

Uncle Justin was asleep. Dad suffered greatly while Uncle Justin was in the hospital but for whatever reason was unable to 

tell any of his friends what he was going through and thus made it worse for himself. But once Uncle Justin got out of the 

hospital he found Dad and started the healing process. Gus knew that what he had planned was going to do good things for his 

Dads but now came the hard part how to make it come to fruition. Well he had a year or so to get everything worked out.

***

 

JUNE 2018

Gus had arranged to have a summer job working as a busboy/waiter at the Liberty Diner. On the first day of this job he met 

his future wife. Most 17 year olds aren’t so perceptive about their future but Gus had heard the stories about how his Uncle 

Justin and Dad had met and how Uncle Justin had known from the first night that he wanted to be with Brian for the rest of 

his life. Gus knew that he wanted to be with Katherine Napoli from the moment he saw her. It turned out that she was the 

grand-niece of Debbie Novotny. She was the granddaughter of Deb’s sister Maxine and was working at the diner during the 

summer to save up some money for when she started school at the University of Pittsburgh in the fall. She was staying with 

Deb in Michael’s old room. While Gus still had his senior year to go in High School and Katherine had graduated from High 

School she wasn’t that much older than Gus. They got to talking and they just clicked. Gus’ shift was over before he knew 

it and he couldn’t wait to come back the next day since he would get to see Katherine again. He knew that he could also 

visit Deb at home and see Katherine even more.

That night Gus startled his Dads when he said “I know who I'm going to marry. Don’t worry I know that it's going to be years 

before I’m ready to get married but I know who it's going to be.” 

“How can you know that Gus?” asked his Dad. 

“I just know it just like Uncle Justin knew that he was going to be with you the first night he met you.” 

“Who's the lucky girl?” asked Uncle Justin. 

“Katherine Napoli, she's Deb’s grandniece, she's staying with Deb and working at the Diner this summer and starts school at 

Pittsburgh this fall.” 

“Wait until Mikey finds out that our two families are finally going to be joined in matrimony.” Brian said with a huge grin. 

“Don’t make fun of the boy Brian.” 

“You two just wait, in 5 or 6 years she'll become my wife.” 

“Have you told her this little fact Gus?” 

“Of course not we just met.” 

With that Gus went to his room. Once there he got out his notebook and started writing down things he would need to 

accomplish in order to fulfill his plan of making his Dads forget the horrors of Uncle Justin’s Prom. 

1\. Get on the Prom committee  
2\. Get some allies to help accomplish the details of the goal  
3\. Save money in order to buy what would be needed

Over the summer Gus and Katherine did become closer and closer and Gus felt that he could take her into his confidence over 

his plans. 

“Gus that's such a sweet thing to for you to do for your Dads. I'll do everything I can to help it work out.” 

“Thanks Katherine I can’t wait to see them when everything plays out the way I know it's going to play out.” 

“What movie do you want to go to Saturday?” 

“Whatever you want to see is fine with me.” 

“Gus do you ever do anything just to make yourself happy?” 

“Making other people happy makes me happy.” 

“Gus you're a wonder.” 

“No I am a Kinney-Taylor as well as a Peterson-Marcus.”

***

AUGUST 2018

A week before Gus was to start his senior year of High School he and Katherine were spending a lazy Sunday afternoon at the 

local park. 

“Katherine you've never told me anything about your family.” 

“Why this sudden interest Gus?” 

“I just like to know things about people I care about.” 

“You care about me, why Gus I didn’t know that.” Katherine said with a huge grin. 

“Well as much as I look like my Dad I’m not exactly like him. I can actually tell someone how I feel.” 

“Gus I was just fooling.” 

“I know. But seriously I would like to know more about your family. I know that your Grandmother and Deb are sisters but 

that's pretty much all I know.” 

“OK you asked for it, do you want the short or long version?” 

“Long.”

“My Grandmother, and she would faint if anyone called her Grandma, was the oldest of the 3 Grassi children. Deb was next and 

Victor was the baby. They were one year apart in school. Grandmother had 3 children, Uncle Manny, my mother Maria, and 

Uncle Paul. My Dad's the same age as Uncle Manny, that's how he met my mother he came to the house with Uncle Manny. My 

Grandmother never believed Deb’s story of secretly marrying a soldier before she graduated High School just before he was 

shipped to Vietnam, so she always considered Michael to be a bastard and tried to limit how much contact my mother and my 

uncles had with him. Michael, and your Dad, were one year ahead of Uncle Manny and my Dad, my mother was a Freshman the year 

Michael was a Senior and Uncle Paul was in the 7th grade. They went to the same High School but lived on opposite sides of 

the attendance zone so they mostly saw each other in school. 

When Grandmother found out that her adored baby brother Victor was queer she made sure that everyone started calling her 

oldest son Manny instead of Vic, his complete name is Victor Emanuel. Michael was my mother’s favorite cousin since she 

barely knew any of the cousins on her father’s side of the family, they were from the Philadelphia area. So when Grandmother 

found out that Michael was gay she stopped coming to Deb’s house completely. My parents were married a year after Mom 

graduated from High School. Grandmother was not happy at all when she got the birth announcement for my oldest brother 2 

years later, Michael Brian Napoli was not a name she was happy with. Needless to say we weren’t Grandmother’s favorite part 

of the family. When we moved to California she didn’t shed a tear, or so I was told since I was only 2 at the time. 

The only time we came back to Pittsburgh was in December of 2011 for Great-uncle Vic’s funeral. Were you there Gus?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then we saw each other before this summer.” 

“I don’t remember you Katherine.” 

“I don’t remember you either.” 

“Well anyway back to my long family story. Deb took us to the Diner after the service, Grandmother was just outraged at the 

choice though I’m sure Deb was just making a point. I decided that I wanted to get to know Deb better so I started writing 

her and we became penpals. When I decided to enroll at Pitt, family roots and all that, I asked her if I could stay with her 

and work at the Diner. As you know she said yes, I’ve only seen my Grandmother twice this summer, it's very hard to believe 

that she and Deb are sisters they're so unlike each other. She certainly wouldn’t approve of you. The child of a gay man 

and a lesbian can’t possibly be anything but a sexual monster. She would be sure that you would sexually attack me everytime 

we were in the same room. She's going to really be pissed when she finally finds out that my younger brother Vic is as gay 

as his namesake. I can just hear what she'll say, how can a descendent of mine be a pervert?” 

“Has he come out?” 

“Only to me, he's waiting until he graduates before he tells our folks. He'll be a Junior this year. That about does it, 

are you still interested in me?” 

“You are kidding aren’t you?” 

“Of course.”

***

In October when the Prom committee was forming Gus made a point of joining. This surprised pretty much everyone at his High 

School since football players generally didn’t have anything to do with non athletic school functions. Gus felt extra lucky 

when he found out that the faculty sponsor of the Prom was a 2002 graduate of St. James Academy and had been at the Senior 

Prom in 2001 as a date of one of Uncle Justin’s classmates.

“Yes Gus I remember that dance, everyone who was there remembers that dance. It was one of the most romantic things I’ve 

ever seen. I never knew that a kiss could be so amazingly special. Then that Chris Hobbs had to ruin everything. Things 

were much different at St. James during my senior year everyone was much more understanding of one another. So yes I'll do 

whatever I can to help you with your quest to make your Dads forget the bashing. They were such an amazing couple that 

night. We can get them to the dance by making them chaperones, I can get the DJ to play any song you want at the appropriate 

time, and I can get the students to clear the dance floor.” 

“Thanks Mrs. Henderson.”

When the Prom committee met to decide what the theme should be Gus pushed for the same theme that the 2001 St. James Prom 

had, he'd learned what it was from Uncle Justin’s yearbook. He pushed for the same colors as well. Since Gus was a very 

popular student, as well as a varsity football player, his views carried a lot of weight and he got his way in these 

relatively minor items. He didn’t get his way in where the Prom was to be held since the school had a contract with another 

Hotel than where Uncle Justin’s Prom had been held.

Meanwhile Gus had enjoyed the experiences of his Senior year, the football team was Pennsylvania State Champion in its class, 

and his friendship with Katherine. Every time he was with her he became even more sure that they would be married someday. 

He hadn’t told her about his plans yet but he thought that right after his plan for his Dads was finally completed would be a 

good time to tell her how he felt.

***

MAY 2019

Before Gus knew it the Prom was only a week away. It was time to fortify the final plans. He had to decide which of his 

family members to ask since there were things that he couldn’t do because of his age. He finally decided that Aunty Em would 

be the most likely to help out. Actually he knew that any of them would do it just that Aunty Em would be able to do it with 

the most aplomb.

“Aunty Em I need you to do something for me.” 

“Yes Gus, what can I do for you?” 

“I guess you remember when I asked you about when Uncle Justin was gay bashed at his Prom?” 

“Of course I do, is the plan about to play out.?” 

“I intend for Dad and Uncle Justin to relive the good parts of their Prom and to be able to do what Dad had planned for after 

the Prom.” 

“Are you sure that this isn’t going to backfire?” 

“Yes or I wouldn’t do it.” 

“What do you want me to do?” 

“I need you to buy some things, here's the money, and to set things up at the house.” 

“What do I need to buy? Keep your money Gus, it'll be my part of the occasion.” 

“OK you need to buy a good bottle of champagne, a fancy flower arrangement, loads of candles, and a bushel of rose petals.” 

“Somebody did a lot of research.” 

“Yes, can you get these items and put them in the house after everyone leaves for the Prom?” 

“Of course Gussy. Just exactly do you want done?” 

“According to Mikey Dad had the champagne on ice on the diningroom table with the flower arrangement, I'll make sure that all 

of Uncle Justin’s favorite foods are in the refrigerator. Then the rose petals made a path from the table to the bedroom and 

covered the bed. The candles were arranged around the bed.” 

“Make sure I have a key and I'll make the place look exactly right for a romantic interlude.”

“Thanks Aunt Emmett.”

***

Finally the night of the 2019 Prom arrived. Gus and his Dads were dressed in tuxes. 

“Justin why're we wearing tuxes, I've never heard of chaperones wearing tuxes?” 

“All I know is that the letter from the school requested that we wear tuxes so that we could blend in better.” 

“As if I could blend in with 18 year old kids, you on the other hand will probably have to beat those randy teenagers off 

with a stick, don’t forget to take a stick.” Brian joked. 

“I’m going to go get Katherine and go to the banquet I’ll see you at the dance itself. Oh by the way I bought you two 

something you can wear tonight.” With that Gus left the house. 

“Now why would he buy us something?” 

“Well Justin you brought him up very well. We're doing him a favor by going to the Prom as chaperones so he feels obligated 

to get us something as a thank you.” 

“I suppose we should find out what he got and I’ll bet the gifts are on our bed.” So Justin went to the bedroom and as he 

had predicted there were two wrapped gift boxes on the bed. He brought the boxes to Brian where they opened them together. 

Inside each was a white silk scarf with an embroidered initial. 

“What a coincidence Brian, the last time I held a scarf like this was when I found that blood stained one that you were 

wearing under your clothes when we first made love after the bashing.” 

“That doesn’t bring back bad memories does it?” 

“No, I got over that long ago. So let me put yours on and you put mine on. ” 

“Justin you are devious.” 

“How else do you explain how I captured the King of Liberty Avenue?” 

“We better be on our way to dinner so we can get to the Prom on time, because if we stay here much longer these tuxes are 

going to be on the floor.”

Just to be perverse Brian drove to the Liberty Diner and they had dinner with everyone staring at two handsome lovers eating 

a romantic meal of hamburgers and fries while dressed in matching tuxes set off with two almost identical silk scarves. 

As soon as Brian and Justin had driven off in the Jeep, Emmett let himself into their house and started setting up for the 

romantic interlude the guys would be having after the Prom.

When Brian and Justin got to the hotel they found that the dance part of the Prom had already started and that they were the 

only parent chaperones. The only other adults were hotel staff, the DJ and school staff members. 

Gus introduced them to Mrs. Henderson and Justin said “You look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?” 

“I was a year behind you at St. James.” 

“Oh OK, but I haven’t been back there since, well I’m sure you remember?” 

“Yes that was a beautiful night until that bastard Hobbs had to screw it up. Sorry for my language Gus.” 

“What happened?” Gus asked knowing he had to cover up the slip by Mrs. Henderson. 

“Nothing to worry about now Gus, just have fun tonight.” 

Gus and Katherine went off to dance again. 

“Mrs. Henderson Gus knows nothing about that night, we decided long ago that he didn’t need to know about that horrible time 

in our lives.” Brian told the teacher. 

“I’m so sorry that I let it slip.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” 

“Thank you again for being chaperones, I’m sorry that none of the other parents were able to attend.” Of course she couldn’t 

admit that no other parents had been asked. 

“We were glad to help out.” Justin answered. 

“Well enjoy the rest of the night. I better go and make sure the punch hasn’t been spiked.” At that comment Brian gave 

Justin a huge grin.

Gus and Katherine had a great time while Brian and Justin were thrilled to see their son having such a good time. 

“You know Brian I’m glad that we came. I was a little worried that being at a Prom would bring back bad memories. But seeing 

Gus and Katherine enjoying themselves so much just brings back the good memories from my Prom.” 

“Well if any bad ones start cropping up just let me know and we can be out of here in no time.”

“Brian I'm 36 years old I can take care of myself once in a while.” Justin said with a grin.

Before anyone knew it, it was 10 to 12 and the DJ announced that the final dance was coming up and it was going to be a 

dedicated song to a special couple.

Then Gus’s voice came over the sound system “I want to dedicate this dance to my Dads, Brian and Justin, so that they can 

finally have the perfect ending to a perfect Prom.” 

Brian and Justin just stared at their son and then at each other. Then the words to a very emotional song in their personal 

history started.

“Justin may I have The Last Dance?”

Brian took Justin by the hand and led him to the dance floor and just like 18 years before the Prom goers cleared the way for 

them. Brian and Justin danced just like they had 18 years before and anyone would have thought that they'd practiced 

ballroom dancing every day since, the two moved around the dance floor like professionals and just like 18 years before they 

ended it with a passionate kiss. But this time the audience started clapping to show their approval. When they came back to 

the world they sauntered over to their son. Both were beaming with love and joy.

“Gus how long have you been planning this?” Brian asked. 

“Over a year, since I found out about the bashing at the Thanksgiving dinner at Debbie’s. I knew I had to do something to get 

you two over the last vestiges of that night. By the way my plan isn’t over. Go on home. I'll spend the night at Mom and 

Mama’s.” 

“Gus you know we're going to pay you back for this.” Justin stated. 

“Yes Gus we old guys can only take so many ridiculously romantic nights in one lifetime.” 

“You just go on home and find out what I have in store for you there.” Gus said with a huge smile.

Gus and Katherine then left so that they could go to the after Prom festivities. Brian and Justin just stared at each other 

with amusement and love. 

“We certainly raised a wonderful son don’t you think?” Brian asked. 

“Yes, that we did, but we can’t forget Linds and Mel had something to do with it too. Let’s go home and see what else he has 

up his sleeve.” 

Once they got through the door they stopped and stared in amazement. Emmett had done what Gus had asked but he had gone 

several steps further. The champagne was on ice with a beautiful flower arrangement framing it. There were lit candles 

lighting the room and a snack tray full of everything Brian and Justin liked on the table as well. Emmett had stayed in the 

house until 11:30 before putting the snacks out and lighting the candles. The path of yellow rose petals led to Brian and 

Justin’s bedroom where more candles awaited and the bed was covered in green rose petals.

“Why would he decorate the house in this manner Brian?” 

“Because this's how I had the Loft decorated all of those years ago for our after Prom date. Once I decided that I did indeed 

love you I wanted to show you in a way that couldn't be misunderstood. I might have gone a bit too far though."

"You think so? But I imagine I would have been thrilled that you were willing to act so out of character just for me."

"Gus must have found out from Mikey how I'd decorated the LOft. He went to there to get me some clothes that first day while 

you were in the hospital. He must have cleaned everything up because I certainly don’t remember doing anything about it.” 

The two lovers returned to the diningroom where they proceeded to open the champagne and eat the snacks between inspired 

kissing sessions. Eventually they followed the "yellow rose petal road" to the “Emerald Bed” where they proceeded to undress 

though they kept the white silk scarves around their necks. To say that they had a night of unbridled versatile passion 

would be to understate what happened. Finally they fell asleep in each other’s arms. When they woke the next morning they 

retired to the shower where they replayed the first time they had shared a shower.

That afternoon when Gus finally made an appearance the two were sound asleep on the couch from sheer exhaustion. Gus wisely 

backed out the door and went to see Katherine.

“Katherine it worked out even better than I ever expected. While I’m sure they'll remember the horror of that night they now 

have after Prom memories to counter the bad ones.” 

“Oh Gus you're such a good son.” 

“Thanks Katherine, I have something I have to tell you though.” 

“What is it Gus?” 

“I just want you to know that I have loved you, with all my heart, from the moment I met you last summer and that I plan on 

making you Mrs. Gus Peterson-Marcus.” 

“Gus we aren’t ready to get married.” 

“I know that but in 4 or 5 years that'll change and then I'll come proposing that you join my family.” 

“We’ll see Gus.” 

“Just ask my Dad about the persistence of Uncle Justin, I learned from the best so there's no doubt in my mind that we'll be 

a married couple, probably with a dozen kids.” 

“A dozen you say?” 

“Well no matter how many we have we'll love them as much as my Dads love me.” 

“Then they'll never want for love.”


End file.
